Eddie Jones has challenged his players to take a leaf out of Manchester United's book by telling them - work hard and reap the rewards.

Very rarely does football and rugby crop up in conversation together but chewing the fat with Sarries' new supremo is anything but boring. One of the world's most sought after rugby coaches, Jones has been eager to return to Sarries ever since he steered them away from relegation to National One during the last three months of an arduous 2005/06 campaign.

"The run of poor results prior to Jones' intervention cost Steve Diamond his job and Sarries CEO Mark Sinderberry wanted Jones to succeed him. He has finally landed his man, however, via an ill-fated spell with the Queensland Reds and World Cup glory with South Africa as one of then coach Jake White's trusted side-kicks.

Jones is a born winner and any players daring of not giving their new boss anything less than 110 per cent had better think again.

"The first thing we want to be is a hard working club as you can't get anywhere without hard work," said the Aussie task-master. "Manchester United don't win championships because they don't work hard. All the good rugby clubs in England work bloody hard - we're going to work harder than they do and this is the sort of attitude we're going to see.

"We've then got to develop other areas so people will say 'right, that's Saracens, that's how they play, that's what they stand for' and this will come over the next period of time."

And that relentless work ethic, says Jones, has to be for the benefit of the club rather than the individual. A large proportion of Sarries's English players have been overlooked by the selectors over the years but Jones is not surprised.

"They didn't play well enough - if you play well enough you will get picked," he said bluntly. "If you play well enough you will get picked and that is the message to our players. There is no player here that has any reason to complain about not getting selected - they've just got to play better."

"We've got one player in the Saxons squad but if we're a successful club you can times that by eight at least," he added. "All the individual recognition comes from the club doing well and that has got to be our main focus.

"It definitely hasn't been like that to a large extent (in the past) so we've got to make sure that from myself down everyone is thinking about the club. The club comes first. We've got to make Saracens strong and to do that we've got to get everyone in tune with that and individual recognition will come from it."

Before the Red Rose bosses come knocking Jones has to mould a squad he believes can thrust Saracens into the Premiership play-offs year in, year out. Under Gaffney the club have developed a more attacking, expansive style of rugby, something Jones is eager to develop while also adapting for the various Experimental Law Variations that are coming into play.

"Essentially a club's culture stems from the playing style," commented Jones. "Alan has developed a very cohesive stand out Saracens style. What we need to do over the summer is develop that, particularly when the environments change so your playing style cannot stay the same - the laws are different for different games. "That opens up exciting opportunities for us. We still want to keep the good parts of that game but move different parts of it to suit the laws."

"We've got to stand for something," continued Jones. "A team that did as well as anyone in the latter part of last season were Harlequins. They developed their own distinctive high risk, high return style - a wide game where they encouraged offloads.They are down the track we need to keep pushing for."

Despite Jones' exciting vision he is keen to keep everyone's feet on the ground and has warned that success at Saracens might not be so instant.

"A cup has to be our aspiration (next season), whether that will become a reality we will have to wait and see," he said. "There is enormous potential to succeed in rugby in England at the moment.

"There has been a set number of clubs at the top and then you''ve got Harlequins, Sale and London Irish competing to get in that top four. These sides want to get there but we want to be ahead of that queue.

"The new laws present remarkable opportunities for a side to play differently and it will be a real test of a side's intellectual capacity and their ability to change and adapt to the new laws. That could change the landscape of English rugby and we want to be at the forefront of that."

One area Sarries are certainly leaders in is producing young talent from their thriving academy. During his official unveiling at the start of the year Jones said it was crucial for Saracens to have a core base of English players coming through the ranks. He remains true to his word despite the recruitment of some household names.

"We've brought in Steve Borthwick, Michael Owen and Wikus van Heerden, three senior guys with plenty of good rugby ahead of them," he said. "They've all been captains of their sides and two of them have been captain of their country. Immediately, along with guys like Chris Jack and Hugh Vyvyan we've extended that leadership through to the forwards.

"At the other end we've brought in four players from the Academy - Alex Goode, Andy Saull, Noah Cato and Don Barrell. We would be happy if we got one player from the academy each year, so to have four is fantastic for the club. We're conscious that we've got to bring in quality players but we've also got to develop the young players here.

"I want these young guys to be our players - I want them to be absolutely indoctrinated into the Saracens culture. That is an aim but that doesn't mean we won't be getting players from other English clubs."

In the meantime, Jones is just happy to be back in the hotseat.

"In a lot of ways it is like starting coaching again - you come to a different environment and you don't get any head start here so you have to prove yourself. The club and I both have to go up together.

"We want to win something and whether that takes one two or three years I'm not sure. We want to be known as a winning club. I think we'll do well next season but the proof will be in the pudding."